older folks have to be treated with kid gloves many times ...many have nothing better to do than expect you to show up as you are the entertainment for the week--

I don't make appointments and don't give customers that level of direct communication...

I use mostly email so I can document everything and have an answering machine that people can leave a message...it gets text messaged to me immediately, so I can decide what calls are important to return immediately or which ones can wait until I am in the office in front of a computer so I can answer scheduling questions or billing-

many folks on here will argue about how important it is to always answer the phone immediately lest you miss out on a sale...somewhat true, though as a single operator, you need to be efficient with your time...talking on the phone all day instead of working is a rough life and not very efficient as people tend to go on and on about non work related things...I used to answer phone calls twice each day, noon, 5/6 pm

---email is so much easier and folks using email don't give you as much gruff